Wadsworth KH, et al. - In order to gain a better understanding of opportunities, obstacles, and constraints to shared medical appointments (SMAs) based on patient experience in the primary care context, researchers analyzed relevant data from peer-reviewed publications from PubMed, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Social Science Research Network. Cooperative healthcare clinic (five articles), shared medical appointment/group visit (10 articles), and group prenatal care/CenteringPregnancy (11 articles) were the three consistent models of care identified. In primary care settings, the growing use of SMAs in a variety of formats, with no singular gold standard, was evident. Patient trust, patient understanding of quality of care and quality of life, and relevant biophysical measurements of clinical parameters could be improved, at a measurable extent, by accepting and implementing this nontraditional strategy by both patients and clinicians. Standardizing measures of patient satisfaction and clinical results will best drive further refinement of this healthcare delivery model, according to the investigators.